Her passion for art led her to further expand her horizons, and in 1998, she continued her artistic pursuits at the prestigious Ecole des Beaux Arts de Monaco. From 1999 to 2001, Ximena had the incredible opportunity to work as an apprentice and assistant to the renowned Austrian painter and artist, Ernst Fuchs. Fuchs, one of the most influential figures in Fantastic Realism, guided Ximena's artistic development. She became an integral part of Fuchs' team, working at his Atelier in Monaco and collaborating on the creation of the murals in the Apocalyptic Chapel in Klagenfurt, alongside Amanda Sage.

Ernst Fuchs, known as the mentor of HR Giger and many other artists who transitioned from the Misch Technique and Fantastic Realism to the expression of Visionary Art, played a significant role in shaping Ximena's artistic style and perspective. In addition to her experiences with Ernst Fuchs, Ximena had the pleasure of sharing her artistic journey with Alex Grey and becoming involved with the Visionary Art Journal from COSM, further enriching her artistic exploration. Ximena Quinteros - Xhiva has emerged as an artist with a unique vision and an extraordinary artistic background, blending diverse influences and her own creative spirit to bring forth captivating works of art.

THE WORK OF XIMENA QUINTEROS

(Original text written in 2007, revised in 2023)

By Narda Alvarado

Ximena Quinteros approaches her artistic practice with the aim of ensuring that her work has a defined purpose: that it operates as a social instrument. In this way, her art fulfils an ancillary function by acting as a magical and/or mystical tool. Its meaning lies mainly in transmitting specific knowledge of the Andean cosmovision, and of the mysticism and philosophy of various spiritual traditions of the world (Egyptian, Hindu, Mayan, Bhudist, etc.). Thus, her practice departs from a pragmatic or instrumental principle, but of spiritual nature. Very different from the prevailing idealistic, self-referential and hegemonic artistic principle of art for art's sake, in which the artwork revolves around art itself, and around its reflection on itself and on its own medium.

Consequently, Xhiva' paintings acquire the character of mystical or magical pictorial objects, although the difference between them and "conventional" artistic paintings is imperceptible, materially and retinally speaking. In specific terms, the artistic-spiritual search of this Bolivian artist and medicine woman focuses on achieving the creation of a "perfect" mandala of healing, of mental cleansing, of inner peace, of universal reminescence, etc. While she achieves this goal, Ximena researches and works on numerology, depicting symbols-stamps, and elements on her paintings.

The idea is that by merging them with Andean knowledge they manifest aspects of numerical concepts or quantum creations used in different cultures. For example, for ancient Egyptians, the emergence of the flower of life originated in two triangles, to which the artist adds the heads of different animals representative of Andean culture, such as the condor, the puma, the llama and/or the snake. With this same methodological logic of unification and/or fusion of symbolic-cultural contents, Ximena Quinteros defies the parameters established by the aesthetics of "conventional" modern painting, and proposes an aesthetic very close to that of popular Andean taste.

Indeed, the use of bright ranges of colours, of elements belonging to the imagery of diverse mystical and visionary worlds — such as those of the Andean cosmovision (crosses, whiphalas, signs of the Aymara zodiac, etc.), or those of Egyptian mysticism (triangles, circles, snakes, etc.) — and/or the superimposition of various pictorial or figurative layers that perform like "levels", celebrates and manifests itself in favour of the anti-modernist aesthetic inclination known as horror vacui.

The artist explains that her art ́s particular nature allows for the creation of a multidimensional reality that gives rise to a journey of exploration into the magical world of the mystical. In this way, Ximena ́s work goes beyond being a simple pictorial fact. It becomes a door, which once opened — due to the committed contemplation of the observer —, transports its user to parallel dimensions of reality.

Narda Alvarado (lives and works in La Paz) is a Bolivian artist-researcher, architect and philosophy student.

Testimonial :

„It is difficult to place Ximena‘s art under any going categories. What impresses me most is that each one of her works of art carries a very specific message. A message which has its roots in the deeper understanding that our minds alone are limited to know and experience the magical and spiritual worlds unknown to us. In this sense Ximena - in an shamanic way- is building a bridge between the different worlds physical and etherical, creating thus a uniting bond and new connections. Each work of art touches the soul of the observer and opens worlds so far unknown. If one is ready to „enter“ Ximena’s artwork one might find helpful means for personal transformation. Sometimes the symbolism of her art seems to be obvious from other angles rather mystical or exotic.

I very much wish that Ximena’s art-gifts might touch the european culture contributing to reach the depths of life in all its expressions.“

- Felix Hürlimann (Ayurveda therapist)